The World’s Thinnest Gaming Laptop Has A Puzzling Design Choice

Today Asus announced the thinnest gaming laptop in the world, the crown for which constantly bounces between companies like it, MSI and Razer. That got my attention! Especially since the Zephyrus Shas narrow bezels that can accommodate a 15.6″ 144Hz display into a 14.2″ body, plus a GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q GPU inside.

I own an Asus ROG Strix laptop (the GL702VS) that I purchased after months of research, but it’s a bit on the beefy side. So when I see similar specs in a laptop only 14.94mm thin, my wallet starts jumping out of my pocket and opening. But once I finished reading the press release from Asus and moved on to the images, my hardware lust went on hiatus.

That’s because if you want the world’s current thinnest gaming laptop, you’ll have to accept that Asus has once again shoved the portrait-oriented rackpad over to the right of the keyboard just like its predecessor.

I don’t like the “keyboard forward” design choice, but I understand it. Visually the Zephyrus S is trying to walk the line between being an elegant and striking work machine and a powerful gaming one. In stark contrast to something like Asus’ camouflage-laden Scar II laptop, the Zephyrus S is all about keeping a low profile with its subtle black and silver accents and magnesium alloy + aluminum construction.

Asus also says the keyboard layout facilitates better cooling and a more comfortable, desktop-style resting position. I’ve always appreciated the cooling solutions Asus employs, but this is a tough one to swallow. If I’m gaming, I don’t care where the trackpad is. But if it’s also doubling as my daily driver for work and everything else, that’s decades of muscle memory to battle against!

To be fair, the placement comes with other benefits such as the trackpad doubling as an optional Number Pad.

Moving past this, though, there’s a lot to love in addition to its striking design. You’ve got an 8th-gen Intel Core i7 on board, 16GB of RAM, a GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics card, and a 512GB NVMe drive among other trimmings like customizable RGB lighting. Narrow bezels and a 144Hz refresh rate are both welcome features here as well. If you can accept the placement of that trackpad, well, it’s probably a superb offering.

It really is sexy, though. I could learn to love it. . .

The Zephyrus S will start shipping via Amazon for $2199 on August 31, with a lower-end model featuring a 1TB hard drive and GTX 1060 hitting wider release following that.

Source: forbes.com